Benetti / Azimut Introduction

Courtesy of "The Benetti Shipyard Story"

History
relates how, in 1809, two carpenters, Valente Pasquinici and Pasquale
Bergellini, launched the first "tartana", christened San Pietro, from
the banks of the "ditch", what is now the Burlamacca canal, in the northwest
of Tuscani. Since that day, a lot of water has passed under the bridges
which divide the working town of Viareggio from the tourist town which
lies on the further bank.

From this background,
certain families came to the fore as owners of ships and shipyards.
Among these are the names that still hold a strong resonance today.
- Benetti, Picchiotti, Tomei, Garre, Raffaelli, Celli, and Codecasa,
to mention only a few.

The Benetti story
is a dramatic one, a story in which the fortunes of a family and of
a shipbuilding tradition are closely entwined. Lorenzo Benetti, a shipyard
worker turned yard owner, founded the yard bearing his name in 1873.
The yard turned from the construction of commercial vessels to the building
of motoryachts in the middle years of this century with a success that
made the Benetti name a legend throughout the world.

In the early 1980's
the management of the Benetti family needed restructuring, by 1985,
a new player appeared upon the scene, Azimut SpA, the Turin-based yacht
building company which took over the yard's management and control.
This change brought a rebirth to the yard's fame and fortune.

Azimut's experience
lay in the design, production and marketing of fiberglass motor yachts
from 10 to 38 meters. The company's forte lay in the sophistication
of its management and planning techniques, the accuracy of its cost
and time control mechanisms, and its sensitivity of the demands of the
international marketplace.

The Azimut - Benetti
group now produce pleasure craft in GRP up to 30 meters and in steel
and aluminum up to 70 meters. For the Benetti yard, the marriage of
the modern, technologically oriented men of the north with the proud
artigianal tradition of the Tuscan shipwrights has produced a happy
synthesis whose fruits now challenge the finest yachts produced anywhere
in the world.